Readit NewsThat is not watchful waiting. There is a lot of active watching in watchful waiting, not ignoring. For example you may get looked at every 3 months, either a blood test or an TRUS ultrasound, plus a biopsy every couple years. If it gets worse and crosses a threshold, you might get treated.
This is entirely different from just ignoring it. There are many different grades of prostate cancer and the key is detecting the aggressive types before they metastasize.
It depends on risk, diagnosis, and age, but generally with active surveillance you will be actively monitored, you’ll monitor PSA volumes and prostate sizes (and get biopsies), usually on a regular basis. Watchful waiting is much less invasive. When someone is old, their cancer not aggressive and low risk, and is dealing with other health issues, subjecting them to numerous tests for no real benefit is a big stress to both them and their families.
I remember you talking about serious eats somewhere so I'm interested why you didn't include this.
In a similar case of you recalling him mentioning the food lab, I believe it was his mentioning of the podcast “Cooking Issues” that made me a subscriber.
I say this to highlight three things:
- Physicians routinely ignore things they shouldn't. Be your own advocate and research the things your doctor tells you, especially the things they believe are just worth watching.
- There is little to no awareness in the public over prostate cancer.
- Surviving isn't always a good metric. In my dad's case, surviving was a promise for a slow and miserable death.
However, We’ve seen this before with prostate and breast cancer where early and often screening leads to not only false positives but undue stress on patients. Furthermore, catching a nonaggressive prostate cancer 2-5 years early may lead to the same outcomes as catching it when certain things like PSA are detected to be increasing. But you may drastically affect one’s quality of life. It can at times be a difficult balance.
We see more and more elderly patients being treated because they are living longer. For many though, “waitful watching” or “active surveillance” is the correct clinical decision and always is up to the patient.
Finally, while prostate cancer isn’t as publicized as breast cancer (we’re trying!). It is a well known cancer and there is awareness of it.